Archive for Oct 30, 2012

Google's Public Alerts, which displays current happenings like storms and earthquakes, has now been integrated with Search and Maps for Android, making it easier to stay up-to-date on important events. The most important event at the moment is superstorm Sandy, obviously. Google's Public Alerts aim to help keep people updated on the mega storm as it develops.

The Lumia 920 Windows Phone 8 from Nokia will be available in select Rogers stores in Canada tomorrow. Consumers will be able to nab the phone for $99.99 with a 3-year contract, or for $549.99 with a monthly contract-free plan. According to the announcement, wider availability will be available "in the coming days."

Ford has been marred with some pretty major issues lately, the latest being a new preliminary investigation by the NHTSA over reports of 2000 to 2003 Taurus and Mercury Sables experiencing sticking throttles. This investigation follows one initiated earlier this year into reports of sticky throttles in 2001 through 2006 Taurus and Sables. Now the company has taken another blow, falling from its high position in Consumer Reports' reliability rankings to the bottom rungs of the proverbial ladder.

As we saw earlier today, Apple's Scott Forstall, Senior Vice President of iOS, is slated to leave the company in the near future, along with head of retail John Browett. According to sources, Forstall was ultimately axed over his refusal to sign an apology letter over the problems surrounding Apple Maps. It seems Forstall has quite a bit of enemies within Apple, which probably didn't help matters.

Last year, Google launched its Chrome Remote Desktop in beta. This app allows users to remote access their own computers while away, and to access other computers running Chrome with the remote desktop extension. Google announced Monday that the application is now out of beta, and that it includes some new features.

A couple weeks ago, we reported that Google was threatening to exclude French media sites from search results if it passed a law that would require search engines to pay for displaying links to French media sites. Google retorted that such a law would be harmful to the Internet, and that it would be forced to stop indexing French sites as a result. Now things have heated up, with Google being told to either pay up or strike a deal.

A camera is arguably one of the most indispensable features on a smartphone, being a necessary component in certain apps, such as barcode scanners, in addition to providing a simple way to take pictures/video and share them without hassle. The cameras in higher-end smartphones offer a variety of features you won't easily find in less expensive models, and often provide poor images in low light settings. OmniVision aims to change this, however, with its newly announced 5MP OV5645 CMOS sensor.

AMD has unveiled its plans to produce 64-bit ARM-based processors for servers, stating that it will be the first company providing x86 and 64-bit ARM solutions. This move aims to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for more energy-efficient 64-bit server processors. The first 64-bit ARM-based processor will be an AMD Opteron, and is slated for production in 2014.

It would appear that amongst the software and hardware releases Google has detailed this week is their first giant iPad competitor in the Google Nexus 10. At first glance the differences might not be abundant to an everyday average user other than the obvious Android vs iOS and feel of each device. As it turns out though, these two tablets, for the first time, create a battle between the iPad and an Android-toting tablet made not just by a major manufacturer, but Google as well.

It would appear that Apple has some relatively major internal changes coming up as both their head of Retail John Browett and SVP of iOS Scott Forstall are announced to be exiting the company in the very near future. Forstall will be leaving in 2013 and will be serving as advisor to CEO Tim Cook until that time, while John Browett will be out without a timeframe - immediately, we must assume. This announcement is joined by assurances that Apple will be making changes that involve Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi adding more responsibility to their plate and that Tim Cook will be in charge of Retail until a new head of Retail can be found.

Hurricane Sandy is incoming, and most of the northeast will be hammered with high winds and lots of rain, with some flooding in the mix as well. Stores all across the New York and New Jersey are preparing for possible flooding, especially the 5th Avenue Apple Store in New York City, which is situated underground.

If you're a die-hard Assassin's Creed fan, you're most likely going to go wait in line tonight for the release of Assassin's Creed III at your local GameStop. However, if you live in the northeast US, you're out of luck. GameStop is canceling all of its midnight openings for the game at locations that are in the path of Hurricane Sandy.